Even hours before it is to kick off, Democratic and Republican operatives are engaged in verbal skirmishes about the VP debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. And no one’s giving ground.

We give you two of them who frequently go toe to toe here in the nation’s most populous state — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and California GOP state chair Tom Del Beccaro.
Our San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com Shaky Hand Productions cam caught up with them at former Mayor Willie Brown’s hot ticket benefit breakfast yesterday in San Francisco.
Villaraigosa headed up the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, and is one of the top surrogates on the campaign trail for President Barack Obama.
Here’s his take:

Del Beccaro headed up the largest delegation to the GOP convention in Tampa, and he weighs in here:

Stay tuned here all night for blogs, videos and follow us on Twitter (@cmarinucci) for the latest on the VP debate, which starts at 6 p.m. PST on all major networks and most cable news stations.